Avoid errors when copying files that already exist in the destination

[Joanna Carter]

Hi there

I am "sorting" a source directory hierarchy into a destination date-ordered hierarchy but, as can happen, the source hierarchy contains duplicate files. Consequently, when these files are copied, I get an (expected) error to the console, but the command continues anyway.

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Error: './f:32.jpg' already exists - /Volumes/Joanna C/DCIM/Cours/Exposition/f:32.jpg

Is there any way to inhibit this console message?

[Phil Harvey]

Error messages can not be silenced.  You need to redirect the STDOUT and STDERR in your app to capture these.

Take a look at my C++ wrapper for an example of how this is done in C++.

- Phil

[Joanna Carter]

Aaarrgghhhhh!!!!

I haven't touched C++ in anger for over 25 years 

Nevertheless, I did find the Swift equivalent, thanks to your code.

The only problem I have now is trying to get STDOUT and STDERR to respond after I've finished intercepting them.

Although it is quite nice to have an empty console display 

[Joanna Carter]

Rather than suppress the error messages, is there a switch that will automatically add a version number to the file name?

I tried /Users/joannacarter/Pictures/%Y/%m/%d/%%f%%c in exiftool -r -ext JPG -o . '-Directory<DateTimeOriginal' -d /Users/joannacarter/Pictures/%Y/%m/%d /Volumes/Joanna\ C/DCIM/ but that really messed things up 

[Phil Harvey]

The %c is what you want.  You add it to the format string when setting the FileName.

- Phil

[StarGeek]

To be clear, you can't use it with -Directory to work properly, you have to use -Filename and set the full filename, including the extension .%e or %E

[Joanna Carter]

Hmmm. I still seem to be missing something. I am still getting errors like:

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Error: './JNA_0001.jpg' already exists - /Volumes/Joanna C/DCIM/Projections/2018/juin/JNA_0001.jpg

Here is the command line I am creating:

exiftool -preserve -extension jpg -recurse -ignoreMinorErrors -q -q -extension jpg -out . -FileName<DateTimeOriginal -d /Users/joannacarter/Pictures/%Y/%m/%d/%%f%%-c.%%e /Volumes/Joanna C/DCIM/
And there is only ever one file with the original name

Might this have something to do with this from the -w docs?

This same FMT syntax is used with the -o and -TagsFromFile options, although %c is only valid for output file names

[Phil Harvey]

You need to add quotes around "-FileName<DateTimeOriginal".

- Phil

[Joanna Carter]

Unless I start playing around with %c, everything else works fine, even without the quotes. Don't forget this is not being typed into the terminal.

exiftool -preserve -extension jpg -recurse -ignoreMinorErrors -q -q -extension jpg -out . -FileName<DateTimeOriginal -d /Users/joannacarter/Pictures/%Y/%m/%d/%%f.%%le /Volumes/Joanna C/DCIM/ works fine, apart from kicking up:

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Error: './f:32.jpg' already exists - /Volumes/Joanna C/DCIM/Cours/Exposition/f:32.jpg

However, if I change the command in the hope of avoiding the "already exists" errors by appending a "copy number":

exiftool -preserve -extension jpg -recurse -ignoreMinorErrors -q -q -extension jpg -out . -FileName<DateTimeOriginal -d /Users/joannacarter/Pictures/%Y/%m/%d/%%f%%-c.%%le /Volumes/Joanna C/DCIM/

... nothing changes. The file names are all exactly the same as without the %%-c and the errors are still produced.

[Phil Harvey]

Try it from the command line.  I did and it worked as expected.  The error is somehow in your running of the command from Swift.

- Phil

[Joanna Carter]

Sorry Phil but I'm not getting the same results here.

Copying the command from my code to Terminal, surrounding -FileName<DateTimeOriginal with single quotes and escaping the space in the source directory gives me:

exiftool -preserve -extension jpg -recurse -ignoreMinorErrors -q -q -extension jpg -out . '-FileName<DateTimeOriginal' -d /Users/joannacarter/Pictures/%Y/%m/%d/%%f%%-c.%%le /Volumes/Joanna\ C/DCIM/

Running that gives me exactly the same "already exists" errors and lack of copy numbers as running it from my app 

I must clarify that, apart from that, the command does exactly what I want it to do, whether from the Terminal or from my app.

When you are trying it, does your source hierarchy contain duplicate files in different sub-directories?

[Phil Harvey]

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> exiftool a.jpg -datetimeoriginal                                                       
Date/Time Original              : 2018:08:27 07:31:40
> exiftool -preserve -extension jpg -recurse -ignoreMinorErrors -q -q -extension jpg -out . '-FileName<DateTimeOriginal' -d tmp/Pictures/%Y/%m/%d/%%f%%-c.%%le -v a.jpg
======== a.jpg
Setting new values from a.jpg
'a.jpg' --> 'tmp/Pictures/2018/08/27/a.jpg'
Created directory tmp/Pictures
Created directory tmp/Pictures/2018
Created directory tmp/Pictures/2018/08
Created directory tmp/Pictures/2018/08/27
Rewriting a.jpg...
Nothing changed in a.jpg
> exiftool -preserve -extension jpg -recurse -ignoreMinorErrors -q -q -extension jpg -out . '-FileName<DateTimeOriginal' -d tmp/Pictures/%Y/%m/%d/%%f%%-c.%%le -v a.jpg
======== a.jpg
Setting new values from a.jpg
'a.jpg' --> 'tmp/Pictures/2018/08/27/a-1.jpg'
Rewriting a.jpg...
Nothing changed in a.jpg

Note that the second time I ran the command it added "-1" to the file name.

Can you replicate this?

[Joanna Carter]

If I cd to the source directory, and try your first command

/Users/joannacarter/Développement/PhotoBrowser/PhotoBrowser/Resources/exif/exiftool a.jpg -datetimeoriginal

I get absolutely nothing, not even an error.

If I then copy your "full" command and simply change the destination directory:

/Users/joannacarter/Développement/PhotoBrowser/PhotoBrowser/Resources/exif/exiftool -preserve -extension jpg -recurse -ignoreMinorErrors -q -q -extension jpg -out . '-FileName<DateTimeOriginal' -d /Users/joannacarter/Pictures/destination/%Y/%m/%d/%%f%%-c.%%le -v a.jpg

... I get the following output:

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======== a.jpg
Setting new values from a.jpg
Error: './a.jpg' already exists - a.jpg


Directory structure is:

/Users/
-joannacarter/
--Pictures/
---source/ (cd to here before running command
---destination/

Anything to do with not having ExifTool installed in its default location, only in my app's project?

[Phil Harvey]

If I cd to the source directory, and try your first command
I get absolutely nothing, not even an error.

OK.  That's the problem.  The %c only applies to the DateTimeOriginal value.  If there is no DateTimeOriginal, then  '-FileName<DateTimeOriginal' does nothing and the %c in the date/time string isn't used.  What did you intend to happen to files without a DateTimeOriginal?

- Phil

[Joanna Carter]

I suppose I expected all files to have a DateTimeOriginal